In the past to perform a monetary transaction a customer needed to transfer a physical monetary item to a service provider, such as gold, coins, paper money or a debit note (e.g. a check). The service provider could deliver the physical monetary item to his bank to convert the monetary item and credit his account. In modern times such a transaction can be performed immediately over communication lines. In some cases a standard computer can be used with special programs that require passwords or other details for authentication and that encrypt the details that are transmitted (e.g. credit card or bank details), so that if the message is intercepted the details cannot be stolen. Many service providers use special equipment, for example a credit card reader that transmits transaction details in an encrypted form.
One form of storing and transferring money that is commonly used in some countries is carried out by having a mobile telephone supplier serve as the bank. A user can pre-pay the mobile telephone supplier to credit his account and then use the credit to withdraw funds at a physical kiosk or to pay for goods or services from a service provider. Such transactions require that the kiosk or service provider have a secure connection with the mobile telephone supplier to prevent compromising the customer's details.
Various non secure communications methods are supported by mobile telephone suppliers, for example SMS, MMS for standard mobile telephones and immediate messages (IM), Tweeter and web access are offered on more advanced mobile telephones. The use of these communication methods in monetary transactions is problematic since their protocols are insecure, allowing messages to be compromised in different ways, for example by being monitored, intercepted, forwarded, copied, replaced etc. therefore in spite their popularity these communication methods are not used to perform secure transactions.